The social value of health programs: Is age a relevant factor?

Eva Rodríguez Míguez and José Luis Pinto

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: In cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) it is usually assumed that a QALY is of equal value to everybody, irrespective of the patient's age. However, it is possible that society assigns different social values to a QALY according to who gets it. In this paper we discuss the possibility of weighting health benefits for age in CEA. We also examine the possibility that age-related preferences depend on the size of the health gain. An experiment was performed to test these hypotheses. The results assessing suggest that the patient's age is a relevant factor when assessing health gains.

Keywords: QALY; age weights; social welfare function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 D63 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The social value of health programs: Is age a relevant factor? (2000)
Working Paper: The social value of health programs: Is age a relevant factor? (1999)
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